


to heal

by whichlights



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider, Pre-Canon, caleb ! ur backstory !, i have a lot of fucking feelings about this NAMELESS HEALER, shitty mental healthcare systems, shitty patron deities too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 00:04:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14738321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whichlights/pseuds/whichlights
Summary: She looks and she sees this broken man, and she readies her spell. She can help.





	to heal

Helena spends every Saturday traveling across Wildemount, visiting hospitals, and asylums. She's tried visiting prisons, but her patron has always said  _no_.

Her patron is a force of good, and of healing, and through her Helena heals, but on one condition- never murderers. And Helena has never argued. 

Helena is in an asylum the day she disobeys. 

There's a man in the corner. His hair is ragged, and his face is dirty, and he stares blankly out a window. He looks  _broken_ , and it stabs at Helena's heart. Even if a spell can't cure him of whatever is hurting him, maybe he would find comfort in a friendly face. 

Helena reaches out, and her patron says,  _not that one_.

"He's in pain," Helena said. 

_He is a murderer._

Helena starts to back away, but she stops. "He seems to have paid the price. He seems to have paid his repentance."

_DON'T._

Helena leans down to his level. He's muttering spells under his breath- spells for fire. An arsonist, maybe. Helena lays her hands on him. 

She feels a spell lift from him, and she's shocked. She knows it couldn't have been a spell that keeps him in the asylum- she was always careful about those, even if she didn't agree. Someone had cursed him.

The way he looked at her... his eyes were wide and shining. She raised a finger to her lips,  _quiet_ , and walked back away.

Her patron was furious.  _I. Said. NO._

"They're my powers," Helena snapped. 

_That was a murderer._

"That was a man who needed healing."

Her patron is silent, and Helena goes to the rest of the asylum. No other spells lift as she goes around. 

There's a sharp pain in her head, and she grasped it with a gasp. One of the doctors holds out a hand to her. 

 _I hope it was worth it,_ her patron says, a final word, and Helena can feel her link  _sever_. 

(She goes stark raving mad within minutes.)

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is witchlightsands, my dnd sideblog is genderfluidmollymauks, and i. i love caleb a lot


End file.
